Here's a good article on Ars Technica about Indie Bands selling their music direct to the public:
Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labelsComplete article.
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: August 12, 2008 - 11:05PM CT
A new era of music
Online music is a complex and constantly-morphing beast, especially from the perspective of the bands and artists who create it. For small indie bands, that beast can be quite a challenge to wrangle. Without a label and a team of execs whose entire job it is to make sure your stuff is everywhere it should be, dealing with all the intricacies of online music sales is just one (or 20) more thing(s) to do—on top of making sure the proceeds from that last show will pay your rent. But times, they are a' changin', and if the artists who've recently shared their digital music industry experiences with us are any indication, indie bands are becoming increasingly savvy at navigating the online music world. From distribution to promotion to actually making money, indie bands are doing more than just getting by without the major labels—they're actually thriving.
[Ed. note. Someone on Slashdot was asking for 'backup' to prove that it's true that recording artists could earn as little as 2 cents royalty. I found this illustration, in which the artist sold 500,000 albums and was entitled to no royalty. The only thing atypical about it is that it is rare to sell 500,000 albums. -R.B.]
Keywords: digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player
4 comments:
From distribution to promotion to actually making money, indie bands are doing more than just getting by without the major labels—they're actually thriving.
And why not? There's plenty of money in music: the record labels would have musicians believe that their services are required to make a good living. Now, perhaps that was true, once upon a time, but it's not anymore.
Screwmaster said:
the record labels would have musicians believe that their services are required to make a good living. Now, perhaps that was true, once upon a time, but it's not anymore.
And that thought scares the recording industry to death!
XxX
After reading your referenced article on how little royalty money (if any) an artist is paid on a recording contract that sells a quite respectable 500,000 albums, I'm surprised any recording artist/group at all is defending the recording industry.
It certainly puts the lie to the argument that the RIAA is suing home filesharers (who aren't making any money off of filesharing) "for the good of the Artists."
The "New Technology" deduction was especially galling. Seems to me this is what the screenwriters gave up the first time around on DVD sales as well, hence the screenwriter's strike this winter and spring to try and get some of it back.
{The Common Man Speaking}
Wildly of topic but couldn't find anywhere more suitable and didn't want to waste Rays time reading an email.
Some thoughts from Weird Al Yankovic on music piracy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-grdpKVqg
Safe for Work etc etc etc.
In case you wondered you can download the song, for free, from his myspace page :)
Enjoy.
db
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